Goaltender Jet Greaves has returned for the Blue Jackets with a three-year contract extension, so the focus now shifts to unsigned forwards Adam Fantilli and Cole Sillinger.
More: What Jet Greaves’ $15 million extension means for the Columbus Blue Jackets
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Sillinger, 23, has an arbitration hearing July 27 in Toronto, where Blue Jackets president/general manager Don Waddell and Greaves finally reached a $15 million pact less than an hour before a July 23 hearing. Fantilli, 21, is vacationing in Italy while his agent, Pat Brisson, continues talks with Waddell during the star center’s first dabble in restricted free agency.
Waddell, who has roughly $17 million left in salary-cap space, is confident both deals will get done without too many snags, starting with Sillinger.
“We’ve made progress from both sides, so I’m pretty confident we’ll get that resolved before [July 27],” Waddell said. “They want to make a deal. We want to make a deal.”
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Sillinger, selected 12th overall in 2021, has played five full NHL seasons and sits two years away from unrestricted free agency. The Blue Jackets would like to get him signed to a contract that takes him into at least his first UFA season, but finding the right salary number is the biggest hurdle.
According to AFP Analytics, a site that projects salaries for NHL free agents, a three-year deal for Sillinger could cost the Blue Jackets $5.1 million per season.
Combined with Greaves’ new deal at $5 million per season, that could leave the Jackets with around $12-$14 million in cap space to re-sign Fantilli, whose value likely skyrocketed thanks to recent contracts signed by two comparable centers from the top of his 2023 draft class.
Connor Bedard, the first overall pick, agreed to a five-year deal worth $75 million with the Chicago Blackhawks on July 20, boosting his cap charge to $15 million after Leo Carlsson, the second pick, used an offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers to push his salary to $18 million per season with the Anaheim Ducks, who kept him by matching it.
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Could a team with enough cap space and the need for a young No. 1 center try to pluck Fantilli from the Blue Jackets in the same way?
It’s possible, but Waddell isn’t concerned.
“Everyone knows we have lots of cap space,” he said. “The problem is … the last offer sheet was $18 million [per season]. Are these players worth that much right now? We would match, but the good thing is the agent [Brisson] and I are talking on a pretty regular basis. It’s the same agent Greaves has, so we had talks [July 22]. Adam’s in Italy right now, until the weekend, so once Adam gets back, we’ll get it back going.”
Once Sillinger and Fantilli are signed, the Blue Jackets can wrap up a turbulent offseason that included rampant trade speculation about stars Zach Werenski and Kirill Marchenko. Neither was dealt, but uncertainty remains after Werenski nixed a deal with the Dallas Stars.
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Dispatch Blue Jackets reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets get Jet Greaves signed, but two key contract battles remain
